


what it means to fly

by frogsupremacy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27979929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogsupremacy/pseuds/frogsupremacy
Summary: Under editing
Relationships: Reiner Braun/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	what it means to fly

Danica was ten years old when Wall Maria fell, and she was twelve years old when she pledged her life to get rid of every single Titan that was responsible for it. 

Even now, standing in the middle of the Cadet Corps camp with dust stinging her eyes and the heavy breaths of everyone around her, she didn’t regret a thing. How could she, after that day? Safely tucked away in Karanes, Danica could still smell the smoke on the wind, could still imagine the screams that sounded more animal than human, the crunching of bones under large teeth and falling debris. Her mother’s pale face, the sobbing from her parents’ bedroom when they thought she was asleep, the thought of Petra. Petra, who wasn’t even in the Walls, who was far away, urging her horse faster and faster as they tried to hurry back. 

The Scouts came back to nothing but collapsed buildings and the bloody horizon. 

That night, the Ral house was silent. 

So Danica found herself, hands folded smartly behind her back, as Commandant Keith Sadies yelled at the upcoming trainees. The dark circles under his eyes were more than visible in the sunlight, and the wrinkles in his forehead deepened as his rant continued, echoing off the rocky cliffs framing the camp. 

“Hey, mop-top!” he screamed, directing his attention to a short cadet with a long blond undercut. “What do they call you, maggot?” 

The cadet raised his right fist to his chest and yelled right back. “Armin Arlelt, from Shiganshina, sir!” 

Danica didn’t move, but she felt like flinching away. This boy, with the fragile blue eyes and skinny legs that refused to shake at Keith Sadies’s threatening words, had been there. He witnessed it firsthand, been there two years ago, when Danica told her mother that it felt like a storm was coming.

A storm did come, but not the kind they expected. 

The thoughts swirling around in Danica’s head must’ve been obvious, because there was a soft touch on her arm. Amalie Schur, always so protective; she needed to be, as the older sister of two little brothers and best friend of troublesome Danica. Her eyes, so dark that no pupil was visible, flitted quickly over Danica’s face. 

“Relax, Dani,” she whispered. “We’re safe here. No nightmares.” 

No nightmares except for Keith Sadies, who had turned his attention on another boy, this one with ash-brown hair trimmed shorter on the sides and back. Danica noticed the way Sadies’s gaze passed over two other cadets, one a short blonde girl, and the other a boy with dark brown hair parted down the middle. As she stared, the boy saw her, and his eyes—startlingly green-blue—held a steely fire so palpable Danica visibly shrunk back. 

“I wonder why Sadies is skipping some,” Amalie piped up, her voice still hushed. “If you’re going to prep some, why not all?” 

“Mal, I think he knows who was there. He can see it, on their face. If you look closely enough, you can see it too.” 

But Amalie didn’t get a chance to respond, because Sadies stepped towards them, his golden-brown eyes lit by the smell of weakness. Of the shiver in Amalie’s chin. 

Instead, he loomed over Danica, tall and intimidating. “And what do we have here?” 

“Danica Ral, from Karanes District!” 

Distaste twisted Sadies’s features. “Well, Danica Ral, your sister was a lot more polite when she was here. Call me sir, or I’ll have you running laps until your legs give out!” 

The bite in his words made Danica’s hands curl into fists, and she scowled, her face upturned to look him directly in his beady eyes. “Compare me to my sister again, and I’ll be a lot less polite than I am right now.” 

At this, a few birds were startled into the sky, their wingbeats loud against the thick silence that settled over the cadets. Amalie was trying to contain her whimpers from beside her. Sadies’s glowering face grew closer to Danica’s, but she stood still, her eyebrows creased with anger, even as his hot breath washed over her. 

“It’s good to know you’re annoyingly stubborn!” he hollered. “You’ll need it for when the Titans will come and try to tear each limb from your body! And you’ll need it most of all when you’ll be sprinting around the yard tonight with no dinner in your stomach!” 

Danica wanted to yell back, she wanted so badly that her nails dug into her palms, but instead, she just smiled. Sadies’s smug expression dropped the slightest amount, and there was an intake of breath among the cadets. Out of the corner of her eye, Danica spotted the boy from earlier, his face slack from shock and the burning flames in his gaze gone. 

“Those Titans can try,” she declared, “but I’ll tear them apart first. And when I kill them all, you will be the one being polite to me. Thanks for the motivation, sir.”  
___________

Sasha wasn’t that bad of a running partner. Danica was already impressed enough, as Sadies left her alone to go confront the potato thief who was gutsy enough to eat right in front of the commandant, but when Sasha kept steady pace with Danica, who had been running around Karanes since she was five years old, her respect for Sasha skyrocketed. 

“Only a few more hours, right? The sun’s dipping pretty low, and...and I’d say it’s going to fall fast.” Sasha’s voice was raggedy, but she seemed unbothered, her ponytail swaying back and forth. “Maybe we can make it to dinner.” 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Danica replied, craning her head to look at the hazy sunset. Her legs began to ache, but she ignored it. The thought of Sadies fueled her irritation, and so she picked up the pace slightly. “I doubt we’ll get dinner, though.”

“I’ll get some for us later,” Sasha said, perking up a bit at the mention of food, even though sweat still gleamed at her temples. Past the baby hairs sticking up by her forehead, Danica could see some of the cadets standing out on the porch of their bunk. Amalie was with them. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their attention was fixed on her and Sasha. Probably wondering how they hadn’t dropped dead yet. 

Like hell was she going to quit. 

“Just don’t get yourself in trouble again,” Danica told Sasha, trying to stifle her giggle. “You want to run again, don’t you?” 

Sasha rolled her eyes playfully. “Hey, shouldn’t I be trying to warn you? Backtalking Sadies like that. I’m surprised he didn’t snap your neck right then and there.” 

“I kind of wish he had.” 

“Then I wouldn’t have a running partner!” 

By the time the sky had darkened to a blue so dark it was almost black, Danica’s legs had almost given out, and the stitch in her side was so painful her vision went spotty. She and Sasha both collapsed by one of the fires, their sweat staining the ground, breathing heavily, trying to steal all the oxygen from the air. 

The sound of footsteps made Danica’s head jerk up, and she spotted two figures approaching from the darkness. Sasha, her eyes still closed, sniffed at the air—

And she was flying through the air, tackling the figure with blonde hair to the ground as she grabbed the bread clutched in its grasp. Danica, with a gasp, was quickly on her feet, rushed over to the figure, who she could now see was a girl, all large blue eyes and delicate features frozen in fear at Sasha, who held the loaf of bread with a ravenous expression on her face. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Danica asked, gripping the girl’s shoulder, inspecting her face. 

“I’m fine,” she responded, dusting herself off with her free hand. In the other, she clasped a bag of water. “But you two should really have some water before you eat.”

“You have been running for a while,” said the voice behind Danica. It belonged to another girl, whose thick black hair was tied into pigtails. She met Danica’s intense stare and blushed. 

Sasha, meanwhile, was open-mouthed, studying the blonde girl. She lunged forward and grabbed her by the shoulders. “You’re...you’re a goddess, aren’t you? Glory unto you!” 

“What are you girls doing?” 

Another person emerged from the shadows, her golden eyes boring into Danica’s. Her disheveled brown hair hung in a low ponytail and freckles dotted her cheeks, but Danica still felt a foreign type of timidness as she stepped forward. 

At the new girl’s words, Sasha began gulping down the loaf of bread quickly, as if it would be taken away. 

The blonde girl answered for them. “Well, they’ve been running all day, Mina and I wanted to give them food and water.” 

“It’s true,” the black-haired girl interrupted. Danica assumed she was the Mina the blonde talked about. “Nothing bad.” 

A smirk made its way onto the new girl’s lips. Danica bristled; something about this girl was off, but she couldn’t exactly pinpoint it. 

“Why?” Danica inquired, a hint of venom in her tone. “Off to tell Sadies?” 

A golden gaze traveled over Danica, over her dirty uniform, the sweat stains on her chest, the frizzy hair pulled back into a hasty braid. “No, not this time.”

As the new girl and the blonde began talking again, Danica turned to Mina. “Not to be ungrateful or anything, but do you have any food for me? I’m starving, and I might collapse if I don’t get anything to eat.” 

Mina simply laughed and pulled out a loaf of bread and a bag of water. When Danica reached out to grab the bread, their fingers touched, and a shock of electricity had Danica recoiling, her face burning. 

As Mina watched her, Danica wolfed down the bread, not caring that crumbs sprayed everywhere. She practically inhaled the water, and at one point, had a coughing fit because she drank too fast. Mina just stood to the side, the beginnings of a grin lifting the corners of her mouth as the light from the fire lent an orange sheen to her hair. 

Once the fire had burnt down to only a few glowing embers, the freckled girl and the blonde girl both hoisted the passed out Sasha on their shoulders and began carrying her to a cabin. Mina took the empty water bag from Danica and nodded towards one of the bunks. 

“We should probably head to bed. You’re in my cabin, so I’ll walk with you.” 

“Did you see Amalie anywhere?” Danica asked. At Mina’s raised eyebrow, she continued. “Short, skinny, light brown hair but really dark eyes.” 

“Oh, that one! She’s in the same cabin too, was talking about how she hoped you were okay. Probably sleeping already. Almost everyone is.” Mina yawned. “See,” she added, “the moon’s out.” 

Indeed it was, silver and swollen and hovering over their heads. Danica looked up at it in wonder. It had been so long since she'd seen the moon this bright, so close that she could reach out and touch it. Surrounded by tiny glowing stars, it gleamed almost as strong as the sun. 

“You look like you just realized something,” Mina observed. Danica looked down from the sky, her face softening, and found Mina’s steady gray gaze on her. 

“Have you ever wanted to fly? Fly so far away, you leave behind all of this? All the Titans, the Walls?” 

“Unfortunately, I only fly in my dreams.” Mina’s voice was teasing, but she seemed serious. “But yes. I bet freedom tastes sweeter than sugar.” 

Danica chuckled at that. “If I had wings, I’d never touch the ground again.” 

There was a bit of silence, and then Mina spoke again. “I feel like you’d miss it, though. Just a little bit.” 

“Maybe. I guess I’ll never know. Freedom is just a dream at this point.” 

They reached the door of their cabin, and just as Mina predicted, the lights were all doused. 

Before Mina could enter the bunk, she spun around to face Danica. “Hopefully you taste freedom in your sleep tonight. Tell me what it tastes like, yeah?”

Even as Danica laughed, a pang stabbed her stomach. Even in sleep she wasn’t free, because a peaceful night was only a dream.


End file.
